Malcolm X

I was not an avid follower of this man, but some of his ideals should have been scrutinized for a better community amongst the people mainly African Americans.

He was a man of integrity especially with family life. His followers were not as strong minded as he just as those in MLK's time. Those supposed followers reacted to certain aspects of their ideas I believe, just to announce that they were a part of a group with some power.

The followers did not fully understand their leader who was for the equality of Human Race.

This is a very good biography of Malcolm X that follows his Autobiography with some exceptions. Denzel is the man.

Its the best movie I have ever watched. very clear and easy to shift through.will encourage any potential buyer to go for it.

I am a huge fan of the book, but the movie has so many flaws that it left me hungry for a better film. The good: The acting by Denzel Washington is great. He brings life to a man that most of us knew only as an angry man. His smile and spirit (and almost dead on physical similarity to Malcolm) brought so much to humanize him. Spike Lee couldn't have cast the main role any better and he was responsible for writing a great likable living Malcolm. It was also nice to see Ernest Thomas aka Roger from the TV show "What's Happening" ('hey hey hey Raj!"). The bad is that several of the other actors were not nearly as good. Al Freeman Jr. was terrible as Elijah Muhammad and it bordered on comical how clunky. Nothing was clunkier than the music that was chosen for the movie. It really pulled you out of the scene, especially the music during the Mecca visit. It sounds like a song from a 1970s bad documentary. The scene with Malcolm and his wife discussing their personal lives was destroyed by the terrible music.

One highlight was Lee's choice to use Ozzie Davis' voice for the eulogy. Since he wrote and delivered it at the actual funeral, it was a brilliant move to have it recreated by him for the film.

I am not a huge fan of Spike Lee's work, but this movie is epic and he did an amazing job of condensing a great book. The life of Malcolm X was perfect for a movie. It really is a life in 3 acts, and the third act has the rewards of his life before, but also the penalty of his previous life, which he can't escape. Sadly there were parts that were missing including the debt he owed his Aunt. She was pivotal in the book, and even one scene with her would have helped explain where he got the money to go to Mecca.

The picture of the DVD is great, but the sound is just average with some of the dialog mixed very low. The 2 disk set has a great deal of extras that make it worth it. The deleted scenes were wisely left out of the original movie. Nice to see them (love DVDs for this!) but Lee was very smart to not include most of them. The hunger scene was great, but didn't fit in the movie. I do wished he would have included the scene about the white girl who wanted to help, but was not given the opportunity. Lee filmed a follow up scene that redeemed Malcolm, but for some reason didn't include it. The omission of this one scene left me frustrated because it really showed how his humanity had changed after his trip to Mecca. He finally embraced a new self and Denzel played it so well. Luckily it is one of the deleted scenes so enjoy it.

Overall, I wish he had spent another 20 dollars on the soundtrack. He might have gotten something that wasn't so distracting and it would have made the movie much stronger. The music fights the moods so many times it really reminds you that you are watching a movie. Much of it sounds like temp music that he just slapped in there regardless of how it affected the emotion of the scene.

I love Malcolm, I love Spike, I love Denzel...I grew up on the street Malcolm was born on, in North Omaha, Pinkney Street, BUT...the movie is lacking...Read The Book!!! It is a revelation.